One Hundred Years of Solitude: Analysis of Setting
"One Hundred Years of Solitude" is a novel by Gabriel García Márquez set in the fictional town of Macondo, which serves as a microcosm of Colombian history and culture. Founded by the Buendía family, Macondo is depicted as an Edenic place, initially isolated from the outside world, where no one has died and the community is young and vibrant. This idyllic setting undergoes significant transformations, paralleling historical events in Colombia, such as civil wars and the impact of American colonialism represented by the Banana Massacre of 1928. The narrative intricately weaves the growth and eventual decline of Macondo, reflecting themes of innocence lost and the cycles of history. Additionally, the town's origins trace back to the coastal town of Riohacha, where the founders faced personal turmoil, setting the stage for their journey. Through its blend of magical realism and historical reflection, the novel explores the complexities of identity, conflict, and memory in Colombian society.
One Hundred Years of Solitude: Analysis of Setting
First published:Cien años de soledad, 1967 (English translation, 1970)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Magical Realism
Time of work: 1820’s to 1920’s
Places Discussed
Macondo
Macondo (ma-COHN-doh). Fictional inland town in Colombia that is not far from the coast. Critics generally agree that Macondo is modeled after Gabriel García Márquez’s hometown of Aracataca, Colombia. Indeed, a nearby banana plantation was named Macondo. In the novel, Macondo is founded by an expedition led by the Buendía family who, after crossing mountains and looking for a new outlet to the sea, finally decide to simply stop and settle. The novel describes the town in terms reminiscent of Eden: It is a town so young that no one is older than thirty and no one has died. The town of Macondo is isolated from the outside world, except for the band of gypsies led by Melquíades, who ride through the air on carpets and bring the wonders of the world to the townspeople.
The novel is organized around the development of the town. The first five chapters detail the founding and early years of Macondo. This is then followed by four chapters describing military uprisings, civil wars, and revolutions. The next five chapters represent a period of prosperity for the town, with a concurrent loss of innocence. The final chapters reveal the inner decadence of the town and its final destruction in a whirlwind.
While the novel is fantastic and magical, it also reveals significant information about the history of Colombia, particularly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. During the years between 1884 and 1902, Colombia experienced three civil wars. The events of the novel parallel this period of Columbian history surprisingly closely. Indeed, many critics identify one of the novel’s major characters, Colonel Aureliano Buendía, as the historical figure Colonel Uribe Uribe. This period in Colombian history is full of chaos and confusion, just as in the novel. Certainly, the characters in the novel seem to have little idea of what they are fighting for or why they are fighting.
The second important historical event treated in the novel is the incursion of American investors and the Banana Massacre of 1928. In the early years of the twentieth century, United Fruit Company, an American concern, began building huge banana plantations in the vicinity of Aracataca. Likewise, in the novel, Americans arrive in Macondo and begin developing the area. In the novel, the Banana Company engineers magically change the course of the river; in Columbia, the erection of dams and dikes did indeed change the flow of the river.
Further, in the real town of Ciénaga, near Aracataca, labor unrest erupted into violence in 1928. On December 6, a large number of striking banana workers were massacred at the railway station by government troops. It is still uncertain how many people were actually killed, despite the many investigations. It is clear that the government attempted to mask its involvement in the massacre. This event is dramatically rendered in the novel. José Arcadio Segundo is present with the striking workers at the train station when the army opens fire with machine guns. He witnesses two hundred train cars filled with the dead and wounded. Yet, when he attempts to report the massacre, he finds that no one will believe him and that everyone denies any such event took place. Critics suggest that this denial represents the reluctance of the real witnesses of the Ciénaga massacre to speak out about what they had seen.
Riohacha
Riohacha (ree-oh-HAHCH-ah). Coastal town, the birthplace of Macondo’s founders, José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula Iguarán. In the sixteenth century, according to the novel, the pirate Francis Drake attacked the town. It is here that Buendía murders Prudencio Aguilar in response to his taunting about Buendía’s supposed impotence. Aguilar’s ghost will not leave José and Úrsula alone, and so it is that Macondo’s founders set off on their expedition to their new home.
Bibliography
Bell-Villada, Gene H. Gabriel García Márquez: The Man and His Work. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. Definitive book-length study of García Márquez and his work for the North American reader. Contains a twenty-eight-page chapter about One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Gallagher, D. P. “Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia, 1928-).” In Modern Latin American Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973. Gallagher covers several aspects of the work and in the process presents a fine and very readable overview of the novel.
McMurray, George R. Gabriel García Márquez. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1977. One Hundred Years of Solitude is the subject of a forty-page chapter discussing diverse topics, including the story’s connection to Colombian history, the use of cyclical and mythical time, humor, and the significance of the novel’s final three pages.
Vázquez Amaral, José. The Contemporary Latin American Narrative. New York: Las Américas, 1970. Topics covered in the chapter on One Hundred Years of Solitude include the novel’s focus on the subject of revolution, the theme of the “solitude of the warrior” once he has attained power, and the possible influence on García Márquez of Mexican writers Elena Garro and Juan Rulfo.
Williams, Raymond L. Gabriel García Márquez. Boston: Twayne, 1984. A twenty-three-page chapter on One Hundred Years of Solitude presents an excellent overview of García Márquez’s masterpiece.